The present invention relates to a group of polymers known as polyamidoamines which may be either linear or branched chain polymers. some of these polymers, which are initiated with ammonia, or a primary or secondary amine, are disclosed in a copending, commonly owned, application of another inventor, D. A. Tomalia, et al, under the title, "Dense Star Polymers", Ser. No. 565,686, filed Dec. 27, 1983, now U.S. Pat. No. 4,558,120, which is a continuation-in-part of an earlier application, Ser. No. 456,226, filed Jan. 7, 1983, now U.S. Pat. No. 4,507,466.
The compounds of the present invention are derivatives of the above polyamidoamines in which at least some of the amine hydrogens have been substituted and preferably in which at least one substituent is a phosphonic acid or alkylenephosphonic acid group or a salt thereof.